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• Name: Mustapha Labsi
• Nationality: Algerian
• Residence: Britain
• Marital Status: Married
• Date of Arrest: 01/20/2003
• Location of Arrest: London, UK

A Cry from the Forgotten Detainees of Conscience

URGENT MATTER TAKE ACTION 

The Bratislava Regional Court is holding a hearing today, Wednesday 28 November 2007, on a request to extradite Mustapha Labsi to Algeria.

Based on its research on the human rights situation in Algeria, Amnesty International considers that, if extradited to Algeria, Mustapha Labsi would be at risk of being detained incommunicado in a secret location, and as such being subjected to torture or other ill-treatment. He would also face the risk of an unfair trial. Therefore, his extradition to Algeria would violate both Slovakian law and Slovakia’s obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Amnesty International has documented cases in which the rights of persons, like Mustapha Labsi, who are suspected of being linked to “terrorism” were violated while they were in the custody of Algeria’s Department for Information and Security (Département du renseignement et de la sécurité, DRS, also known as Military Security), and during the course of their trial proceedings.
Under Article 51 of the Algerian Criminal Procedures Code, detainees suspected of “terrorist or subversive acts” may be held without charge or legal counsel for a maximum of 12 days. The arresting authorities must immediately give them the opportunity to communicate with their families and to receive visits from them.

However, Algerian law is routinely violated in cases of people suspected of “terrorism” who are arrested or detained by the DRS, which specializes in interrogating those thought to have information about terrorist activities.

Those arrested are systematically held incommunicado for up to 12 days, and sometimes longer, before they are either brought before the judicial authorities or released without charge. It is while they are in secret detention in barracks operated by the DRS that detainees are most at risk of torture and other ill-treatment. Amnesty International has received information on several cases where detainees were held by the DRS for months without contact with the outside world in violation of Algerian and international law, during which time they were reportedly subjected to torture and other ill-treatment. In practice, Algeria’s civilian authorities do not exercise effective control over the activities of the DRS.

It should be noted that the UN Human Rights Committee recently voiced similar concerns. On 1 November 2007, after reviewing Algeria’s implementation of its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the UN Human Rights Committee raised concerns about reports of cases of torture or inhuman and degrading treatment carried out in Algeria, which appeared to be attributable to the DRS. It also stated that the length of garde à vue (police custody) detention permitted by the Algerian law is incompatible with international human rights standards. The Committee also raised concern about the fact that, under Algerian law, detainees are not guaranteed access to legal counsel during the period of garde à vue detention or the right to remain silent. It noted that in practice the rights to examination by a doctor, to access to families or to be brought before a court within a reasonable time are not respected.
Moreover, the UN Human Rights Committee expressed concern that the use in courts of “confessions” extracted under torture was not prohibited in Algerian law.

Amnesty International considers that in view of the real risk that Mustapha Labsi would face serious human rights violations if forcibly returned to Algeria, his extradition to Algeria would violate Slovakia’s obligations under international human rights law.

In the light of Amnesty International’s research and the observations of the Human Rights Committee about violations of Algeria’s legally binding multilateral human rights obligations, it is clear that the Slovakian authorities should not base a decision to extradite Mustapha Labsi on any informal, unenforceable promises to ensure respect for Mustapha Labsi’s rights given by Algerian diplomats, outside the framework of international law. Such “assurances” do not mitigate the government’s obligation not to send a person to a place where they face a real risk of human rights violations.

Background

Mustapha Labsi has been held in custody in Slovakia since 3 May 2007, on the basis of an extradition request by Algeria. On 24 September 2007 the Migration Office of Slovakia refused Mustapha Labsi’s request for asylum and for subsidiary protection.

Slovakia is obliged under international law to respect the fundamental principle of non-refoulement: the absolute and unconditional obligation for States not to expel, return or extradite any person to a country where they risk serious human rights abuses, including torture or other ill-treatment. This principle is enshrined in Article 3 of the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (‘ECHR’), Article 3(1) of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Slovakia is a state party.

In addition, Article 403(2)(a) of the Slovak Act on the Criminal Judicial Procedure states that extradition may not be granted when “there is reasonable ground to believe that the criminal proceedings in the requesting State did not or would not comply with the principles of Articles 3 and 6 of the [ECHR] that the prison sentence imposed or anticipated in the requesting State would not be executed in accordance with the requirements of Article 3 of the said Convention.” The Slovak Constitution also establishes in its Article 11 that “international treaties on human rights and basic liberties… take precedence over its own laws, provided that they secure a greater extent of constitutional rights and liberties.”

Amnesty International has received dozens of reports of detainees whose rights have been violated, among them people who had returned to Algeria from overseas, either voluntarily or at the hands of foreign governments. These cases are documented in a briefing on Algeria submitted by Amnesty International to the Human Rights Committee (Algeria: Briefing to the Human Rights Committee, AI Index: MDE 28/017/2007), and a recent Amnesty International report, Unrestrained powers: Torture by Algeria’s Military Security (AI Index: MDE 28/004/2006) which are available at the following links:

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE280172007?open&of=ENG-DZA
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE280042006?open&of=ENG-DZA

Other documents which illustrate Amnesty International’s concerns in similar cases can be also found at:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE280012007?open&of=ENG-DZA
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE280022007?open&of=ENG-DZA
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGMDE280112007?open&of=ENG-DZA
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGEUR450012007?open&of=ENG-GBR

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Uzair Paracha

• Name: Uzair Paracha
• Nationality: Pakistan
• Residence: USA/Pakistan
• Marital Status: Single
• Date of Arrest: 2-20-2001
• Place of Arrest: New York
• Currently Held: Colorado

Background

Uzair Paracha, born in 1980, is the eldest son of Saifullah and Farhat Paracha.

The son of a successful businessman and prominent social activist, he spent his formative years in America, but returned with his family to settle in Pakistan in the mid-’80’s.

Following his graduation from Karachi’s Institute of Business Administration, with a major in Marketing, he joined his father in the family business. Uzair travelled to the US in February 2003, as part of one business venture they embarked upon, in order to market quality apartments in Karachi to the Pakistani community in America. He was based in New York City, where he stayed with extended family.

On March 28th 2003, less than two months since his arrival, he was arrested by FBI agents at his office and was subsequently taken to the Metropolitan Detention Centre, Manhattan, where he has been detained since. After his bail hearing was denied in August, he was indicted on five counts, accused of providing material support to al- Qaeda. His lawyers, Anthony Ricco and Edward Wilford deny that Uzair has ever been to a terrorist training camp and state that he will put in a plea of “not guilty” to all charges.

Ricco said Uzair was “neither a chemist, nor a soldier” and described his client as intelligent but extremely naive, which his lawyer said allowed him to be used: “Bright as he is, he wasn’t able to perceive the way in which he was being manipulated”.

In the time that he has been detained, his father, Saifullah, has been kidnapped by the U. S. government and is currently in their custody at Guantanamo Bay.

Uzair Paracha has been allowed only one visit from extended family, in the first four months of his detention. For the first time after eight months, he spoke to his mother, Farhat, on October 12th 2003. Since then he has been allowed one 15-minute phone call per month to his family in Pakistan, although they have only received one other call. A close relative has expressed concerns about the effect it is having on his psychological health, confiding that Uzair’s morale has been very low recently.

Just because he is being detained in the US does not mean that he’s safe from mistreatment. In fact, while still in the Metropolitan Correctional Center he was praying in his cell and the guard called him. He couldn’t answer because he was in the middle of Salat. (prayer)….and they took it as a sign of opposition. So they restricted his visits and phone calls for 6 months. They always made sure that his phone calls were never more than 15 minutes but they would never make sure that he got the phone call every month. After his conviction, he was shifted to Colorado, he was allowed to make a half an hour phone call every month. (from Zahra, his sister) Religious abuse is rampant toward the detainees no matter where they are interned. Former Chaplain James Yee talks about that in his book, “For God and Country.”

He was convicted in November of 2005 and was given the minimum of 30 years by the Judge in July 2006. He refused Plea bargaining even though they kept trying to convince him to take it, but he insisted that he was innocent. The jury only took 5 hours to convict him.

His lawyer, Wilford commented, “We want everyone to know, we want the world to know, and the world will know, at his trial, what kind of individual he is. He is a good person at heart”.

(From Free Parachas)

The Paracha Family Website

Interviews with Family

Free Uzair Petition

PROJECT TO ENFORCE THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS

Saifullah Paracha


Urgent Health Issues!

• Nationality: Pakistan

• Residence: Pakistan – USA

• Family: Married 4 children*

• Date of arrest: 2003

• Location of arrest: Pakistan

• Currently Held: Guantanamo Bay – Camp 5

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Saifullah Paracha’s Background

Saifullah Paracha was born in Pakistan, in 1947. He is married to Farhat (Pakistani) and they have four children – Uzair (28), Muneeza, (25), Mustafa, (18) and Zahra, (15).

At the age of 26, Saifullah came to the US to study, where he later went on to work and to establish several businesses. He spent the next decade or so in America, with his family, law-abiding and tax-paying residents, and eventually Green Card holders. They finally decided to settle in Pakistan in the mid-80’s, where he started a business, exporting clothes to the US, as well as a television production company. The family have visited the US frequently since, where Mr. Paracha’s business partner, Charles Antenby, is based.

Not only a successful businessman, Saifullah Paracha became known the social work that consumed most of his time and energy. He has been responsible for establishing new schools and hospitals, amongst them the hospital in his hometown, Mangowal, which continues to treat hundreds of patients daily, free of charge, as well as having worked extensively with Afghani refugees and orphans. He is a pleasant, amiable man, who is both tolerant and generous in nature. A loving father, and a devoted husband, “the kind a wife could call a good friend,” his wife, Farhat says.

On July 5th 2003, Saifullah Paracha was called to Thailand for a business meeting by his American partner, Mr. Antenby. He called his daughter from the airport, about to board his flight – the last time his family were to speak to him. Missing without a trace, Farhat and family spent an entire, agonising month in the dark, not knowing why or where her husband had disappeared to. She exhausted every avenue, filing petitions in the Sind High Court against the Pakistani Government, Thai Airways, Thai Consulate and the FIA (the Pakistani Intelligence Agency), demanding an explanation for her husband’s mysterious disappearance but to no avail since no organization would claim responsibility for Saifullah.

Precisely a month later, the first news finally came in a NBC broadcast on August 5th, covering the charges leveled against her son in the US, in which it was also reported that her husband was also held under US custody. By the end of the month, Farhat received a letter in Saifullah’s handwriting, through the International Committee of the Red Cross – he was being detained at the US Base, Bagram, Kabul, Afghanistan, notorious for denying legal access to the detainees, the US’s alleged use of torture and the subsequent death of two detainees at the Base.

Saifullah is approaching his 60’s and suffers from a number of medical conditions, including diabetes, heart problems, and prostrate problems. In fact, Saifullah has had three heart attacks in US custody.

Since that time, Farhat has been in irregular correspondence with her husband, writing at least twice at a week, though only five appear to have reached him. She, in turn, has only received five letters from him in the past seven months, unsure whether he writes under duress as he says little.

Two of them in Bagram, and one in Guantanamo. His health “has seriously deteriorated and could lead to his premature death if his pre-existing heart, prostatic and diabetic disease are not treated urgently.”

Paracha’s lawyer, Gaillard T Hunt, suggested that “his medical treatment is at best incompetent and at worst negligent,” and painted a distressing picture of his client’s prospects, pointing out that several of his brothers and sisters have died of cardiac problems before reaching the age of 65, and that Paracha himself “has been having fainting spells, so we know the problem is worsening.” Hunt went on to explain, “He couldn’t submit to a cardiac catheterization at Guantánamo because the rules require all prisoners in the hospital to be shackled to the four corners of the bed. The cardiologist said this was dangerous for a heart patient, but the prison administration would not compromise. (Andy Worthington)

Zahra Parachi, Sister of Uzair, daughter of Saifullah at a very young age put these sites together to help make others aware of her family’s plight. She did an amazing job. Let’s help get her family back to her.

Interview with Zahra for Cageprisoners

• Name: Sabir Mahfouz Lahmar ISN10002

• Nationality: Algerian

• Residence: Bosnia

• Date of Arrest: January 18, 2002

Background:
Sabir Lahmar is an Algerian national resident in Bosnia.

Like other Algerians, Sabir left Algeria in the late eighties and early nineties to make pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca, in Saudi Arabia. The Algerians went their individual ways before fate reunited them in post-war Bosnia.

Sabir married Emina Susic, who was Bosnian, and thus acquired Bosnian citizenship. In Sarajevo, Sabir worked as a librarian at the mosque of the King Fahd Islamic centre, although he planned to study in Syria. He also worked as an administrator in a humanitarian organization. His father was a housekeeper at the US embassy, also at Sarajevo. This link cast suspicion upon Sabir, and caused him to be linked to an alleged attack on the embassy, a claim which Sabir’s father dismisses as inconsequential, saying how he never talked about his work at the embassy to Sabir. Furthermore, Sabir spoke Bosnian poorly, thus could not have had a chance to make contacts there.

Sabir and other Bosnians who also held Bosnian citizenship were stripped of their citizenship in November as part of the Bosnian government’s review of all naturalizations granted during and after the 1992-95 war.

Sabir was taken into custody by the government of Bosnia-Herzegovina. He was later seized, along with 5 other Algerian national, Bosnian residents, by US officials on 18th January 2002. They were transferred to Guantanamo Bay.

The six Bosnian detainees were treated particularly badly. They were moved every two hours. They were kept naked in their cells. They were taken to interrogation for hours on end. They were short shackled for sometimes days on end. They were deprived of their sleep. They never got letters, nor books, nor reading materials. They were given a very hard time by their interrogators. The interrogators said if they didn’t cooperate that they could ensure that something would happen to their families in Algeria and in Bosnia.

Samir was also tortured, held in an isolation cell in Camp Five from August 2004 until mid October 2005, and suffered visual and psychological trauma as a result, according to the Report on Torture Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment of Prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Other articles and reports on torture mention Samir’s name as well.

Wiki has a good piece. Algeria-watch.org, a human rights organization has an excellent article, be SURE to read 6 Algerians Languish Despite Foreign Rulings, Dropped Charges

TAKE ACTION!
Say NO to US Illegal Detentions
Send Letter – please edit to include Sabir
Sign The Pledge
Tear Down Guantanamo

Write to him:
Sabir Lahmar ISN10002
Camp Delta
P.O. Box 160
Washington DC 20053
USA

Note: I have heard differing things as to whether the detainees can receive mail from non-relatives, but if nothing else, it’s a good way to protest.

• Name: Aaifa Siddiqui

• Nationality: Pakistani

• Resident: USA/Pakistan

• Married, three children, also missing

UPDATE: 2006 Report shows US admits having Aafia.[download]

(Cageprisoners) Aafia Siddiqui was born in Karachi, Pakistan, on March 2, 1972. She was one of three children of Mohammad Siddiqui, a doctor trained in England, and Ismet. She is a mother of three.

Aafia moved to Texas in 1990 to be near her brother, and after spending a year at the University of Houston, transferred to MIT. Aafia then married Mohammed Amjad Khan, a medical student, and subsequently entered Brandeis University as a graduate student in cognitive neuroscience.

Citing the difficulty of living as Muslims in the United States after 9/11, Aafia and her husband returned to Pakistan. They stayed in Pakistan for a short time, and then returned to the United States. They remained there until 2002, and then moved back to Pakistan.

Some problems developed in their marriage, and Aafia was eight months pregnant with their third child when she and Khan were estranged. She and the children stayed at her mother’s house, while Khan lived elsewhere in Karachi.

After giving birth to her son, Aafia stayed at her mother’s house for the rest of the year, returning to the US without her children around December 2002 to look for a job in the Baltimore area, where her sister had begun working at Sinai Hospital.

Soon after Pakistani authorities arrested Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Aafia and her children disappeared. A report in the Pakistani Urdu press said that Aafia and her children had been seen being picked up by Pakistani authorities and taken into custody.

According to Mrs. Siddiqui, Aafia left her mother’s house in Gulshan-e-Iqbal in a Metro-cab on March 30, to catch a flight for Rawalpindi, but never reached the airport. Inside sources claim that Aafia had been “picked-up” by intelligence agencies while on her way to the airport and initial reports suggest she was handed over to the FBI.

Aafia Siddiqui had been missing for more than a year when the FBI put her photographs on its website. The press was told that she was an Al Qaeda facilitator. After an FBI conference, a newspaper broke the story linking the woman involved in the 2001 diamond trade in Liberia to Aafia. The family’s attorney, Elaine Whitfield Sharp, says the allegation was a blessing in disguise because it places Siddiqui somewhere at a specific time. She says she can prove Siddiqui was in Boston that week.

She and her children have been missing since 2003. The FBI was given her name by Khalid Sheikh Mohammad under torture. At the time his family was also kidnapped, including his two young children. He knew that, and you can safely assume that they were used to coerce him. One year after her disappearance, the FBI posted her “FBI Seeking Information“.

(From an informative article at LeftTurn.org) I find that during the course of researching these detainees I begin to see patterns. It’s very very disturbing, because it points out just how far our government will go to support this “war on terror”. It’s beyond belief, The lies that have been manufactured are without a doubt, Orwellian.

As I read about her, I noticed that stories began to change. For instance, “Siddiqui’s professional field is alleged to be microbiology, she is alleged to be divorced from Mohammed Khan, or estranged from him, or he is simply referred to as her husband. Some statements have her obtaining her PhD from MIT, not Brandeis. Some attempt to portray her as a science and computer mastermind, based primarily on one 1996 article she wrote for the MIT Information Systems newsletter and the recurrent false statement that her PhD is in microbiology. Unfounded accusations appear and recede in the US media. They range from Siddiqui brokering a diamond deal in West Africa on behalf of Al Qaeda to her opening a Baltimore post office box for an Al-Qaeda member. Lately, however, there are few mentions of her, of whatever accuracy or motivation. Some renewed media attention in 2006 seems to have dwindled to silence.”

After she disappeared from Pakistan, her family was told not to make her disappearance an issue. (see “Strange Story Of Aafia Siddiqui” linked below)

They tried to contact a family member, then were put under house arrest. A family member flew in to Karachi to check on them. She found a lock on the door, and knocked, at first normally, then after getting no answer, knocked very loudly. When no one answered, the neighbors told her that they were inside, but haven’t been coming out for a long time. She flew back home three days later.

It seems to be that whatever information suits the case against her is the one that is used. There’s a lot out there, and much of it is hype. The stark contrast between what friends, family, and acquaintances is amazing. This is as plain as day,, especially if you’ve been following the detainee issue.

Fate and Whereabouts Unknown: Detainees in the “War on Terror” (2005) This 34-page report provides the names and detailed backgrounds of 28 individuals who may be held in U.S. secret sites. The 28 include well-known terrorism suspects such as Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, as well as individuals who have not been widely reported as among those “disappeared,” including Suleiman Abdalla, Abu Naseem, and Aafia Siddiqui. The report also draws attention to the connections between extraordinary renditions and disappearances. The findings of this report have been cited by key actors, including Amnesty International; the Council of Europe and Human Rights First

Report on Ghost Detention – Cageprisoners

Flash: Ghost Detainees

• Name: Abdel Hamid Ibn Abdussalem Ibn Miftah Al-Ghizzawi aka Al-Ghazzawi  (URGENT ACTION)

• Nationality: Libyan
• Residence: Afghanistan
• Married, one young daughter
• Arrested December 2001 (Sold to US Troops) in Afghanistan
• Currently Held: Guantanamo Bay

URGENT UPDATE (health)

Background

Abdel Al-Ghazawwi was born on November 8, 1962. He is just 45 years old, from Tripoli, Libya. He is married to an Afgani woman and has one daughter who does not remember him. He was trained as a meteorologist, but at the time of his arrest he and his wife ran a small shop in Jalalabad that sold honey and spices, and which they expanded to include a bakery.

In the fall of 2001 when U.S. Forces began bombing near his city, he took his wife and young child and fled their home and shop to go to seek safety in a rural area of Northwest Afghanistan where his in-laws lived. Not long after they arrived, around December of 2001 armed men came to his in-laws door and demanded the “Arab”. Abdel A-Ghazzawi cooperated in order to avoid any harm toward his family. At that point he was sold to U.S. Forces in return for a bounty under a program that the U.S. Government commenced which provided large sums of money (bounty) for “terrorists and murderers”. See photograph top.

Al-Ghazzari is neither a murderer nor a terrorist but was a victim of greed in an impoverished nation. He has been held in Guantanamo Bay since 2002.

He is in very poor health, which deteriorates day after day (details to be discussed with u in person). He has a family that is in desperate need of him.” – from another detainee and the only word coming out of Guantanamo about Mr. Al-Ghazawwi in his first four years.

Urgent: An Innocent Man is Dying [Updated]

I cannot improve on what was written on this page. Please visit the page for the full story of Abdul Al-Ghazzawi.

Combatant Status Review Tribunal (From Wiki)

Initially the Bush administration asserted that they could withhold all the protections of the Geneva Conventions to captives from the war on terror. This policy was challenged before the Judicial branch. Critics argued that the USA could not evade its obligation to conduct a competent tribunals to determine whether captives are, or are not, entitled to the protections of prisoner of war status.

Subsequently the Department of Defense instituted the Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The Tribunals, however, were not authorized to determine whether the captives were lawful combatants — rather they were merely empowered to make a recommendation as to whether the captive had previously been correctly determined to match the Bush administration’s definition of an enemy combatant.

Al Ghazzawi’s pro bono attorney, H. Candace Gorman, reports that Al Ghazzawi had two Combatant Status Review Tribunals.[2] According to Gorman, when she acquired a copy of his Combatant Status Review Tribunal, she learned:

1. His first Tribunal unanimously determined there was no evidence that he had ever been an “enemy combatant”.

2. A second Tribunal was convened in Washington DC, five weeks later, in the absence of Al Ghazzawi and his Personal Representative, which unanimously determined he was an “enemy combatant”, based on secret evidence.

3. When Gorman visited the secure site where the attorneys of the Guantanamo detainees can review the classified evidence she found that his secure file did not contain any new evidence. All the documents in his classified file had already been made public. The only difference between the classified and unclassified versions was that names that had been redacted in the unclassified version, were in the clear in the classified version.

When captives participated in their Tribunals their transcripts were normally included among the body of documents that Department of Defense was under court order to release.

Earned mention in the “No-hearing hearings” study

According to the study entitled, No-hearing hearings, Al Ghazzawi was one of the captives who had new Tribunals convened, in his absence, when the initial Tribunals determined that they should never have been determined to have been enemy combatants”.[3]

The study quoted from the Legal Sufficiency Review from James R. Crisfield, the Tribunal’s legal advisor:

“On 24 November 2004, a previous Tribunal [unanimously] determined, by a preponderance of the evidence, that Detainee #654 was not properly designated as an enemy combatant.
On 25 January 2005, this Tribunal, upon review of all the evidence, determined that detainee #654 was properly [unanimously] designated as an enemy combatant.

URGENT NOTE: Mr. Al-Ghazawwi is suffering from Hepatitis B, Tuberculosis and needs proper medical treatment immediately.

John Lennon and Mr. Al-Ghizzawi: Two Peas in a Secret Pod

A Legal Limbo

‘Ask Me About Guantánamo’ …by H. Candace Gorman

Suicide and Spin Doctors

Candace Gorman’s Guantanamo Blog

PROJECT TO ENFORCE THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS Please subscribe to them to keep abreast of the issue. [action]

Andy Worthington’s Guantanamo Files Blog

PLEASE SEND APPEALS TO contacts listed below.

• Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in English or your own language:

• expressing your serious concern that Abdul Hamid al-Ghizzawi may not be receiving appropriate medical care for his illnesses;

• urging that Abdul Hamid al-Ghizzawi be given immediate access to a doctor, and to specialist medical attention if necessary as stipulated in the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, 22 (2), so that he can be properly diagnosed and provided with all the necessary treatment he may require;

• urging that independent medical experts be allowed to visit him regularly in Guantánamo to assess his medical condition and treatment requirements;

• urging that he be removed from Camp 6 immediately and transferred to facilities which will not be further detrimental to his physical and psychological health;

• stating that he should be allowed contact with his family through regular mail, with opportunities for phone calls and visits;

• calling for the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay to be closed and for the detainees held there to be released unless they are to be promptly charged with recognizable criminal offences and brought to trial in ordinary civilian courts in full accordance with international standards, without recourse to the death penalty

UPDATE on Mr. Al-Ghizzawi!

• Majid Khan
• Ghost Prisoner (ISN) 10020
• Nationality Pakistani
• Residence USA
• Married

Majid Khan is a Pakistan-born man and legal resident of the United States who immigrated to the US in 1996. On a trip to Pakistan to visit his wife, Khan was abducted by Pakistani officials and transferred to one of the CIA’s secret prisons. He is represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights and is the only so-called “high value” detainee to have legal representation.

Majid grew up in the US, he was a normal teenager who listened to hip hop music, and to help his family out, he worked at the gas station that they owned. This would be used against him in a later claim by the U.S. Military.

He volunteered to teach computer classes in the local Muslim community.

In 2002, like many Muslims he returned to Pakistan to marry. He then brought his wife home and went to work as a Data Base Administrator in a government office in Maryland.

In March of 2003 Majid returned to Pakistan. While there, Pakistani officials swept in and took the whole family into custody. After one month they released everyone but Majid. His wife and family heard absolutely nothing about him for three years. Then in 2006, President Bush announced that Majid and thirteen “high value prisoners” who’d been in secret CIA prisons had been transferred to Guantanamo Bay to await trial under the new military tribunal system prescribed by the Military Commissions Act (MCA) of 2006.

Majid was the first of fourteen detainees transferred from the CIA black sites to military custody at Guantanamo to challenge the legality of his detention. The Center for Constitutional Rights filed the challenge on October 5, 2006, before President Bush signed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 into law. The MCA of 2006 prevents detainees from challenging US courts. The act is retroactive. The Center for Constitutional Rights plans to appeal the act’s provisions all the way to the US Supreme Court.

According the the US Gov’t, Majid was exposed to a radicalized element of Islam while in America. He allegedly began attending secret prayer meetings at Baltimore’s Islamic Society where he was supposedly influenced by an alleged radical Islamic group. U.S. officials claim that Khan’s first trip to Pakistan put him in touch with family members allegedly involved with Al-Qaeda. According to officials, these family members introduced Khan to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), the man accused of orchestrating the 9/11 attacks, who later allegedly enlisted Khan in to help support and plan terrorist attacks against the U.S. Government officials also believe that Khan, under KSM’s tutelage, was being trained to blow up gas stations, poison water and many other terrorist activities.

Khan’s job at the family gas station factored in to the suspicions of U.S. intel that he was part of an alleged plot to blow up parts of the U.S. petroleum infrastructure. The U.S. government also claims that Majid Khan realized he violated the terms of his asylum when he left the United States to visit Pakistan in 2002.

Attorneys for former ‘ghost’ detainee ask court to declare CIA tactics as torture

Man Held by C. I. A. Says He Was Tortured

Detainee Majid Khan Gets Civilian Attorney

Majid Khan was interrogated and tortured while he was in the secret “black” CIA Prison. For this reason he has asked a U.S. Court to have his statement as inadmissible, because it was signed under duress as he’d been tortured. He was never given an opportunity to read it before he signed it.

USA: Who are the Guantánamo detainees? Case Sheet 20: Majid Khan “If I come back, it will be a miracle of God” Majid old his wife not to count on his coming home.

Wiki’s CSRT Summary Of Evidence Heresay by a supposed FBI “double-agent”. If you read it you’ll notice that in a legal court, it’s nowhere near enough for a case.

Letter from Majid Khan’s Father (statement) “It is only for show and the outcome has probably already been decided”

Khan v. Bush Center for Constitutional Rights Khan v. Bush case.

PROJECT TO ENFORCE THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS Please subscribe to them to keep abreast of the issue. [action]

TAKE ACTION!

Please contact Sec. Def. Robert Gates also!

Related News:

CIA Still Holding ‘Ghost’ Captives

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Omar Khadr Child Soldier

Name:	Omar Khadr
Nationality:	Canadian
Residence:	Afghanistan
Marital Status:	Single
Date of Arrest:	27/07/2002
Location of Arrest:	Afghanistan

Please read “A Legal Debate in Guantanamo on Boy Fighters” (link below) so that you can get some background on Omar.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION

• Report on Torture, Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment of Prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. CCR, 2006

• Rolling Stone, August 24, 2006

• Toronto Star, February 4, 2007

• 60 Minutes, November 18, 2007 (Video)

• Politics interfering with justice at Gitmo, colonel says (posted today)

• Omar Ahmed Khadr (background from trial watch)

• A Legal Debate in Guantánamo on Boy Fighters

• The Trials Of Omar Khadr (MUST READ) by Andy Worthington

• Canada’s Child Soldier Problem (NEW!) by Andy Worthington

The below is from Cageprisoners:

Letters:
Letter from Omar to his brother, Abdul-Rahman, 11-10-04
Letter from Omar to his mother, 18-06-04
Letter from Omar to his mother, 09-10-04

Omar Khadr was born in 1986He is the son of Ahmad Said Khadr, Egyptian, who came to Canada from his native Egypt in 1977, and Maha, a Palestinian-Canadian.

He has three brothers, Abdullah, Abdul-Rahman (21), Abdul-Rahim (14), and two sisters, Zaynab (23) and one who is the younger than him.

Whilst born and raised in Canada, the family moved to Afghanistan in the 1990’s, engaging in refugee work and establishing schools, to rebuild the country under the rule of the Taliban.

When the Americans began bombing Afghanistan, he went to Logar, East Afghanistan. After the Northern Alliance entered Kabul, Omar, now separated from his brother (In Kabul) and his family (who had fled to Pakistan) ended up at a suspected al-Qaeda base near Khost, Afghanistan, which was raided by American and Afghan troops in July 27, 2002. He allegedly killed an American medic with a hand grenade but was shot three times, captured and taken to Guantanamo. He lost one eye. He was 15 at the time of his arrest and has since been detained in Guantanamo Bay. There he has been denied medical treatment, due to his non-co-operation with his interrogators. He had an operation whilst in Afghanistan but remains in constant pain, without being treated with painkillers.

Abdul-Rahman, his brother, was also held at Guantanamo Bay from early 2003 until July 2003. He returned to Canada in November 2003. He admitted several months later to having been recruited into the CIA on his arrest in Afghanistan, and informing on his family, and al-Qaeda members in Guantanamo, Afghanistan and Bosnia- Herzegovinia.

His father was killed in a gun battle, with the Pakistani forces, in South Waziristan in October 2003.

His younger brother, Abdul-Rahim, was shot in the firefight, in his spine, leaving him paralysed from the waist down.

His mother and sister remain in Pakistan, living off the charity of locals.

His elder brother remains in hiding in Pakistan. If he is captured it is probable that he will be sent to Guantanamo Bay.